Filofax

Sunday, 29 September 2013

My Week

Firstly I must say that his week started out
quiet but just kept getting busier. Friday was the day of the Filofax UK
Meetup at Burgess Hill and was my most chaotic day. Having to go out on Friday morning just added to my growing list of things to do. Also Friday was another one of those days when I'd had insomnia the night before. Getting to Vapiano in London on Saturday was much simpler. I have to say that on both days I met some fantastic Filofax people from Philofaxy. Here is My Week, I hope you find it interesting.

Two New Inserts

My first new insert is
one I made a little while ago but it was too small for what I had in mind at the time.
I need a new pocket to keep my money off coupons in and for that purpose
it's perfect. As always I try to keep it simple so I used two pieces of card, half a sheet of paper and some flowered Washi tape.

Personal Coupon Pocket

The second insert is for the front of my Personal Filofax and will be used as a dashboard. I do however feel that it would unwise to cover it all up with notes ect. As you can see this insert has Cillian Murphy on it which I was able to get from Radio Times. This is a photograph that was used to promote the BBC 2 programme Peaky Blinders.

Cillian Murphy Personal Insert

Hopefully that's me done with making inserts for a while but you can never tell especially if a nice image of Cillian Murphy was to present itself.

Tuesday, 24 September 2013

A Visit To London And Filofax

I am getting ready this week to
attend my second Philofaxy Meetup in London which takes place this weekend. I find it
amazing that so much has happened to me since the last Meetup six months ago.

Vapiano London

I had a blog before March this year but had never done a single post, however when I returned home after the March Meetup all that changed. I have now put over ninety posts on my blog and received over thirty thousand hits, many of which would not have happened without Philofaxy. Most of my posts are Filofax related but sometimes I do others types as well

In July there was mini Meetup with Janet and Christa. All though there was only three of us we had a fantastic time.

Janet & Christa

Something that I will sadly miss about these Philofaxy Meetups will be the Filofax store in Conduit Street. The ladies there were amazing and nothing was too much trouble.

The Filofax Store Conduit Street

Hopefully I will be able to do a post next week and let you know how the London Vapiano Meetup went and also the meet up at the Filofax offices at Burgess Hill, no trade secrets I'm afraid though.

Sunday, 22 September 2013

My Week

I've finally sorted out both of my cameras and therefore managed to post My Week on time. This week seems
to have been mainly about contacting people, lots of texts, emails and phone calls. The phone calls are the worst because they often take forever and at the end you've achieved nothing. One recent phone call was three minutes of options. After that I was on hold for twenty two minutes, I hung up because after twenty five minutes I was fed up of waiting. After all that here's My Week.

Saturday, 21 September 2013

Letters To My Mother

Julie Kirk over at the amazing blog Notes on Paper is Going Postal for the third year in a row. Going Postal made me think about a time when I was growing up and the only way I could have contact with my mother was through letters and postcards. This is what I remember about that time

It is often said that the past is another country and this is
certainly true when I think of the time my mother spent in hospital in the 1960s. Right up until the late 1970s when people
suffered with their nerves (a euphemism for stress or a nervous breakdown) they
were often not cared for at home but in hospital.
Now it’s all about care in the community but back then many people went into
hospital for a rest, good food and some tlc.

For one month my sisters, my brother and myself,went into
foster homes because our father who had become our main carer was also taken ill and
had to be hospitalised himself. During my time in my foster home I missed my mother terribly
and was only allowed to write to her once a week.I don’t recall much about the content of the letters
only how I finished them; I would always tell her how desperately I missed
her.Years later my mother told me how
important the letters were to her and how she and her friend would spend all
week deciphering what I had written.

Most weekends my foster parents would take my sister and
I out with the rest of their family on day trips. We were taken to a number of places but I especially remember Bristol Zoo
and Bourton on the Water. I loved
Bourton on the Water where they had a model village of the town. On the trip to Bourton on the Water I was allowed to buy a
postcard which I was able to send to my mother. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed
to write it but at least my mother was able to have some correspondence from me. My
mother kept the postcard all her life and when she passed away in the late nineties
I got the postcard back.

Communication when I was growing up was a lot slower than today, many people didn't have landline phones and mobiles didn't exist. At that time the majority of us communicated with one another by sending letters and postcards and that made communication extremely personal. I don’t recall getting any mail from mother when I was in the foster home; unfortunately she probably didn't have enough money for a stamp.
I do like to think that my one letter a week gave her something to look
forward to at what must have been a very difficult time.

Although it’s creased, grubby and worn in places here is
the postcard I sent to my mother.

Bourton-on-the-Water

Here is the back of the postcard and a picture of my mother at that time. You cannot actually see my mother's face as she is sat with her back to the camera at the end of the carnival float nearest to the nurse.

Friday, 20 September 2013

Today for the first time I have guest post which has been written by Helen from Fennell Books. After you've read her post you can check out her blog over at Fennell Books. Helen has kindly put together this post as part of the Philofaxy All Stars Tour.

A big thank you to Paula for allowing me a slot on her
lovely blog as a part of the Philofaxy All Stars Blogging event.

Paula asked me to write about my favourite book, what a
question to ask a bookworm! I have mulled this over for quite some time, and it
isn’t easy to answer. If I am after a good laugh it would be a Pratchett
or a Wodehouse,
if I want something beautifully written which I can immerse myself in it would
be The
Remains of the Day or A
month In The Country. The
Darling Buds of May meets the feel good factor and The
Diamond as Big as the Ritz is the first really grown up story I read which
made me think more widely than just about adventure. So, which book to write about? In the end, I
thought I would write about a book which I think about on and off with a
reasonably regular frequency, even though I read it several years ago. This book is What Was Lost by Catherine
O’Flynn.

I picked up What Was Lost randomly from the library, for no
other reason than it sounded unusual. The book is about a ten year old girl
called Kate, set in 1984, she likes to play detectives in the newly opened
shopping centre close to her home. One day she goes missing, and the case
remains unsolved. Fast forward to 2004 and a security guard in the same
shopping centre and sales lady from the record store set out to discover what
happened to Kate.

The first part of the book is narrated by Kate, and O’Flynn
pitches the voice of the little girl and her imagination perfectly, and perhaps
it has a particular resonance with me as I would have been about the same age
in 1984. As the novel jumps to 2004, the shopping centre’s soulless existence
is still there. What Catherine O’Flynn does brilliantly is capture the ordinary
in everyday life, against a backdrop of the delicate and disconcerting mystery
of Kate’s disappearance. The book is multi-layered, just as life is, and loss
and disappointment are explored with a gentle touch.

I know this doesn’t sound like a cheery read, but the
mystery in itself is genuinely brilliant and touching and the books is worth
reading just for that. The almost perfect capturing of real life also left me
far more aware of the people around me, those I know and those I don’t and what
they may be carrying with them, which doesn’t outwardly manifest itself. Thanks Helen for a fantastic post.

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

My Finance Domino

Unfortunately for various reasons I never
managed to use my A5 Violet Domino for scrapbooking and Smash pages. Due to a recent change in my finances I need to keep a closer eye on them. For this purpose I think the Domino will be ideal.

My A5 Domino

I have made a small start by already making a finance sheet for my Domino as you can see below.

Finance Sheet

Hopefully within the next week I will make further progress with my finance organiser and I will then do an update post

My Week

I must apologise once
again for the late posting of My Week. Unfortunately I've again been over
tired through lack of sleep. Also I've had problems with my camera, my Kodak needs recharging and I've mislaid the cable. The Samsung that I use absolutely refuses to take decent photos in the evening no matter how much extra lighting I give it. Here at last though is My Week.

Hopefully by next week I will have found my camera charger and my post will be on time.

Friday, 13 September 2013

A Wallet And A Pen Holder.

I thought I would share my new wallet with you that
I've just made for my Filofax. I always need extra pockets in my Filofax
for notes that I've written on loose pieces of paper and this is my latest one.

As you can see the wallet is not only good for notes but also holding pens occasionally as well. I made the wallet just slightly wider than a personal page so that I could include some pens on the outside edge.

Monday, 9 September 2013

Protecting My Diary Pages

I normally store some of my diary
pages inside my Pink Personal Finsbury but occasionally the Finsbury gets used for
other things. So what I decided to do today was make a cover for my diary pages to protect them when the Finsbury is needed elsewhere.

Diary Temporary Binder Cover

Last week I bought an inexpensive laminator and was able to use that to make some basic front and back covers. I used A5 pages for the cover but the punched holes are positioned to fit my diary pages. I used six small book rings to hold the diary pages securely.

I'm still getting used to my laminator and may reduce down the size of the binder pages, they don't need to be quite that large for personal pages.

Monday, 2 September 2013

Christmas Inserts

I realise it's only
September but I think we've reached the time when you can give Christmas the occasional thought. Therefore I've put together some inserts to help me organise gifts and
cards. Firstly I've made an insert to make a note of who to send Christmas cards to. I also thought it was time I used some of my Washi tape to decorate the inserts which only got used on Christmas cards last year.

Christmas Card List

Secondly I made an insert to write down gift ideas as they came to mind.

Christmas Gift Ideas

Lastly I made an insert to remind me next of the gifts I've actually given. I have sometimes known people give exactly the same gift two years in a row.

Christmas Gift Record

It is still a little early to think about Christmas so I won't even mention how many sleeps there are left until Christmas Day, I'll let you work that one out.

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